Tag Archives: literacy

Each March, the brightest minds in education, technology, and media gather in Austin, TX for SXSW EDU to explore what’s next in learning. Here at the Joan Ganz Cooney Center, we love everything about it – we learn so much from all of the incredible leaders who take the stage and share their experience and wisdom, we love sharing our own work, and meeting up with friends old and new. This year, the Cooney Center is proud to share two…

In the Cooney Center’s Sandbox for Literacy Innovations, E-Line Media is creating a reading app that aims to helps kids discover the joy of reading. RiSi (Read It, See It) brings digital storybook illustrations to life as children read aloud—encouraging fluency, engagement, and confidence. But the origins of the app trace back to the deeply personal journey of one man. Over the course of his life, Jon Waterhouse was many things—global explorer, Navy veteran, environmental steward, Native American scholar, and…

Earlier this year, the edtech startup LitLab began testing a new feature in their classroom product that creates AI-generated storybooks for early readers. The feature is a “record me” option for kids reading aloud, backed by technology that can analyze the recordings to assess student progress and facilitate personalized feedback from both the app and human teachers. As a technology, the feature worked well in the pilot classrooms. The problem was that too many students seemed reluctant to use it. …

The Cooney Center’s new initiative matters for kids and teachers Early in my education career, I taught ninth-grade English in a small public high school. My vivacious, curious students came from all over San Francisco for our school’s strong community, youth leadership focus, and promise of college readiness. I was an enthusiastic and capable young teacher, excited to read and discuss compelling books with students and to coach them to find their voice and clarify their ideas through writing. My…

Generative AI is here to stay—so how can we help children understand what it is and how to use it responsibly? On March 3, 2025, the Joan Ganz Cooney Center was thrilled to participate in a panel at SXSW EDU exploring how AI can enhance, rather than replace, the student-teacher relationship. Moderator Lisa Guernsey, Director of the Learning Sciences Exchange at New America, opened the conversation by highlighting AI’s potential to reshape literacy and computational thinking. She emphasized that AI-powered…

Although we are still in the midst of discovering the implications and opportunities that various technologies bring to our children’s (and our own) lives, we’re seeing a new technological innovation getting a lot of attention: artificial intelligence (or AI) – and specifically Generative AI. AI is something you’re likely already using in your daily life. If you’ve ever unlocked your phone with facial recognition, spoken to a voice assistant like Siri or Alexa, or relied on a navigation app like…

A new report from SRI Education describes the quality of educational YouTube videos for prekindergarten- and kindergarten-age children. Findings point to surprising differences from educational television shows, including less use of characters and plot to help kids learn. Many parents question the quality of YouTube video content. So do researchers. According to the 2020 Common Sense Media Census, children are spending more time watching videos online than in any other format. Streaming sites like YouTube have surpassed even television viewing.…

According to NAEP only 14% of U.S. students reported reading for fun almost every day in 2023 – 13 percentage points lower than 2012 – and average reading scores have declined for most sub-groups of 8th graders since 2020. Tackling this crisis in reading requires a multi-pronged approach to understand and address the challenges. The Advanced Education Research & Development Fund (AERDF) initiative Reading Reimagined has embarked on this work, in particular through funding research on how older children (ages…

Carly Shuler authored several reports, including D is for Digital, Pockets of Potential, and  Learning: Is there an app for that? during her time with the Joan Ganz Cooney Center from 2007-2012.   The Cooney Center didn’t just play a role in shaping my career—the term isn’t strong enough. The Cooney Center incubated my career. My company. The 50 people who work for Hoot, the 900 teachers in our teacher network, and the thousands of kids we work with. Our impact…

Children’s literature is not known for its diversity—either in terms of diverse characters within books, diverse authors and illustrators, or diverse staff within the publishing industry. Nancy Larrick’s famous article, “The All White World of Children’s Books,” was published in 1965, and sadly, the situation is not that different today. Yet those responsible for putting books in the hands of children know how important it is that books for young people provide what Rudine Sims Bishop calls “mirrors, windows, and…